For better or worse, Texas A&M Football and Jimbo Fisher stuck with each other

For better or for worse, Texas A&M football is stuck with Jimbo Fisher. What are both parties in College Station going to do about it?

Let’s be honest. If the brass behind Texas A&M football weren’t legally required to fork over the GDP of a small nation to part ways with head coach Jimbo Fisher and could do so with impunity, the fifth-year Aggies’ head man would already be packing his bags. After promising the world, Fisher and his program have underwhelmed to a degree that hasn’t been experienced in College Station in quite some time.

But, he’s not going anywhere.

For better or worse, Texas A&M football is stuck with Jimbo Fisher and Fisher is stuck with A&M.

The why isn’t complicated. Deserving or not, no one is going to write a check for $95 Million. First, because that’s an inexcusably large amount of money and second, because doing so would be to admit the failure of a man handed an uninscribed national championship plaque shortly upon his arrival. There’s too much pride at stake, even in those deep-pocketed, oil-and-gas-driven doners.

There’s a case to be made that’s a good thing. Being forced to tough it out through the mess Fisher has made could set the stage for a late-tenured breakout, ala Dabo Swinney, who didn’t really turn Clemson into a juggernaut until year five or six. And Swinney has never recruited on the level that Fisher has already achieved.

The talent is going to be there. The question that lingers is whether or not Fisher can find a way to maximize it. Will he swallow his pride and hand the keys to the offense to someone else? Will that be the answer?

But even if the Aggie-Fisher marriage is doomed to fail and having to endure at least a few more seasons of offensive ineptitude are still in the cards, that’s the bed Texas A&M Football has made. And as much as many would love to believe otherwise, there’s no parachute coming nor another Nick Saban-esque coach waiting in the wings to save this program.

It’s on Fisher and it’s on Texas A&M football to figure it out. Time will tell if they will.